Bright Red Trickery
by Seantarboe
Summary: There was the sickly red of blood spilling out of wounds she couldn't heal, and the flashing red of Sasuke's Sharingan, and that's were it belonged. Bright red did not belong on a necklace, did not belong over her heart. Something's wrong. Team 7


Prompts:  
Word: _Colour  
_Phrase: _The world swayed..._

This is probably a one-shot, but I'm open to suggestions ^^

**Disclaimer:** Sadly, all I own is this shoddy computer (okay fine it's not shoddy, it's sleek and gorgeous. But it's a Maaaac! Anyone else miss PC??)

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It was a simple mission. Meet the client in the woods, get the message, get out. It was really assigned to Team 7 as a practice mission, simply because they had nothing else to do in light of the recent peace agreement with the other hidden villages. A D-ranked mission, even.

So of course Sakura had messed up. Badly.

Which wouldn't have been so awkward had her two teammates not broken into her house the following day, forced her to get up, and were now staring at her intently as she stood in her bedroom door, arms crossed and looking highly displeased.

Surprisingly, Sasuke was the one to speak first.

"About yesterday." he stated, yet his face was void of the disdainful expression she'd expected.

Sakura took a deep breath. "Listen, I'm so sorry about that. I promise next time I'll listen to orders--"

"Don't be sorry!" Naruto exclaimed, eyes twinkling. "You thought it was the best option--"

"Not to mention _you _never listen to orders either," interrupted Sasuke cooly. "Who are you to tell her--"

Worried they would get into a full-fledged fight, Sakura broke in quickly, "Okay, so if it's not about that then why are you here?"

The two turned towards her, and Naruto slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot." He took out a small black box from his kunai pouch, handing it to Sasuke, who began walking towards her.

She drew in a breath as Sasuke stepped closer, his obsidian eyes never leaving hers, but when his arms came around her they went behind her neck. Suprised, Sakura's eyes flitted over to Naruto, who was grinning like a maniac.

"It's for you."

Sasuke stepped back and Sakura realised there was a new weight on her. She didn't move as the two boys looked her over appreciatively, Naruto commenting happily that he'd _known_ that chain would look good with her skin.

"A necklace?" Sakura asked, wondering why they would've gotten her a gift when she'd messed up so badly the last mission.

Naruto nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "We thought you could use a pick-me-up!"

Sakura reached up and fingered the cool, delicate pendant around her neck. Naruto was smiling at her and even Sasuke was looking faintly happy. Sakura glanced down at the bright red star they'd gotten her.

And just like that, something was wrong. Something was wrong, wrong, _wrong, _because that colour wasn't what it should be. Bright red? There was no bright red in her world. There was bright orange, and there was fire, and one of them hurt when it wasn't there and the other hurt when it was. There was the dull red of her clothes, dirtied by her work and covered in edgy black mesh. There was the sickly red of blood spilling out of wounds she couldn't heal, and the flashing red of Sasuke's eyes when he used the Sharingan, and that's were it belonged. Bright red did not belong on her necklace, did not belong over her heart. Bright red was not a happy colour, and this wasn't her life.

Sakura looked up, and her world swayed. Naruto's face became distorted, pulled out in some places and blurred in others, and Sasuke's began shimmering like water, rippling sickeningly across his face. Sakura felt herself lurching forwards, heard herself screaming, and then she was falling into an abyss of black...

Pain. Shooting up and down her left arm. What? Clink. Kunai. Something ripping. Someone hissing at her to stop moving. Headache. Confusion. Open your eyes, "_Open your eyes, _Sakura."

Sasuke. Heavy eyelids. _Sasuke_...

Sakura cracked open one eye, only to find that everything was _still_ blurry. All she could see was green and a strange ray of black hanging over her. Blinking a few times, the green sharpened into trees high above her and the black was...hair. Hair? "Good," a slightly relieved voice grunted. Right, Sasuke.

"Is she awake?" So Naruto was there too, at once sounding eager and terrified.

She could feel Sasuke's irritation, enhanced by his worry and exhaustion. "Yes, idiot. Keep working."

Working? she wanted to ask, before she felt gentle, calloused hands on her forearm. Immediately she let out a cry of pain before her brain had even processed it, writhing away from the hands that felt like they'd stuck a thousand nails in her. She slowly became aware of another pair of strong hands holding her down as her shouts quieted to weakened whimpers and sharp intakes of breath.

"Hush, Sakura. Quiet..." Tears leaked from her half-closed eyes as she tried desperately to control her breathing, tried to figure out what was going on. As if reading her mind, Sasuke said softly, "You shouldn't have done that, Sakura. I was doing fine until you defended me. I could've handled that sword."

Sword...mission. Ambush. Fight. Sasuke in trouble. He was lying, because she'd known he wouldn't have seen the sword in time. She'd jumped in the way...

Remembering this, Sakura lifted her hand curiously, wincing at the effort. It was covered in the red she hated, running thickly through the gaps in her clenched hand. Her eyes widened, travelling further to see Sasuke's eyes looking unusually bright and spinning red furiously. Next to him Naruto had ripped off a strip from the bottom of her red dress and was tying it tightly around her arm, tugging hard to stop the blood flow. Sakura opened her mouth.

"Oh," she said weakly, closing her eyes.

_Home again._

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**A/N:** I'm not sure how this worked out. Is the first part too long? Too confusing?


End file.
